Damaged device delivered.

A few days ago, I upgraded my phone contract and the device was delivered today. When unboxed the device, I noticed a small scratch at the bottom of the screen. I then phoned Vodacom after sales to inform them, but was told that it will take a few days for the courier to collect the phone and return it and that I will have to cancel the upgrade and re-do the entire process which is really annoying. Why can't a simply return the device for another one? I'm happy to take the device to a store as well and swap it if need be. I'm just worried that re-doing the application will lead to even more problems, but I'm also not happy paying for a phone that's new with a scratch on it.